Relaxation Over, The Tour Begins

March 4

Typically the tours start in the evening with the day reserved for people to arrive, get settled and relax for a bit.  I prefer getting there a few days earlier so I am ready and rested before the tour, one main reason is to acclimatize to the time zone change.

Met my tour group and the tour leader went through the information we needed to know.  As this was my first time taking a tour, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  We were giving little booklets with information about where we will be each day, some local words, and some history.  After, most of us decided to go across the street to get some food.

March 5

Today was a long tail boat ride and a visit to some temples.

There were a lot of houses right along the canal; many that looked quite run down.  At home, only the fancy houses are on the river as they are more expensive.

At one point, we stopped as we had a loaf of bread and there were a bunch of fish.  Amazing how fast they came to the boat to get some food!  One of the members of our group was trying to catch a fish; we aren’t sure why but he wasn’t able to.

From there, it was off to check out Wat Po.  It is the third largest reclining Budda in Thailand.  The Budda is completely covered in gold leaf and has to be re-covered every year as it tarnishes. 

The Reclining Budda is 43 meters (141 feet) long and 15 meters (49 feet) tall.  There are 108 mother of pearl squares in the feet of the Budda.

This picture doesn't do it justice

You cannot tell how small and ornate this truly was

From there, we wandered around the rest of the Wat and then those of us that wanted to went back to the hotel.  Some of the others decided to go check out other things before we headed out on an 8 pm train.  

 

These statues were everywhere.  Apparently the boats came from China empty so these were put in for weight.

Our tour guide tried to get us all a cab but for some reason, she was having a hard time so I ended up in a tuk tuk to get to the train station.  I get what people don’t like about them; they tend to dart in and out of traffic and you get fumes in your face.   There were three of us stuffed in and we had to hold our luggage to make sure it didn’t fall out when taking corners.  

Squishy tuk tuk!

Got to the station, found the group and left our luggage with our guide while we wandered around and found snacks for the ride and the night.  We did end up leaving on time but we will see if we got to our destination on time.  We did have to stop for a bit to add a new/additional engine.